About:
A criminal finds her true gender after crossdressing to escape the law.

Symon’s rough-hewn portrait introduces the viewer to the undeniably fascinating Gloria Stein, formerly known as Butch. As he matter-of-factly tells it in this project which often feels more like reality TV than a traditional documentary, the notoriously homophobic Butch disguised himself as a woman while on the run from the law and surprisingly found that it resonated far more than expected. Soon, Butch was identifying as Gloria, and though not claiming to have felt like she was trapped in the wrong body, eventually elects to have sex-reassignment surgery at the age of 67. Gloria is a brassy, memorable subject, even if Symon’s storytelling is often shaky, not always succeeding in filling in Gloria’s backstory clearly, and incorporating obviously staged scenes in addition to awkward re-enactments.